Apparatus and method for reproducing storage medium that stores metadata for providing enhanced search function

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for reproducing a storage medium that stores metadata are provided for an enhanced search function using various search keywords of audio-visual (AV) data. The apparatus includes: a search unit for searching for scenes matching a search keyword by conducting an enhanced search function on the AV data with reference to metadata which contains information regarding at least one search keyword for each of the scenes of the AV data; and a reproducing unit for reproducing the AV data corresponding to at least one scene found by the search unit. The metadata may include information regarding an entry point and/or duration, angles, etc. of each scene. Hence, the enhanced search can be conducted using various search keywords. Further, search results can be reproduced according to diverse scenarios, and the enhanced search function can be provided for movie titles that support multiple angles or multiple paths. Moreover, metadata can be created in multiple languages, thereby enabling the enhanced search function to support multiple languages.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.2005-1749 filed on Jan. 7, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual PropertyOffice, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to reproducing audio-visual (AV) datarecorded on a storage medium, and more particularly, to a storage mediumincluding meta data to provide an enhanced search function, an apparatusand method for reproducing AV data from a storage medium that storesmetadata for providing an enhanced search function.

2. Related Art

Storage media, such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs (BDs), store audio-visual(AV) data composed of video, audio, and/or subtitles that arecompression-encoded according to standards for digital video and audiocompression, such as a MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) standard.Storage media also store additional information such as encodingproperties of AV data or the order in which the AV data is to bereproduced. In general, moving pictures recorded on a storage medium aresequentially reproduced in a predetermined order. However, the movingpictures can be reproduced in units of chapters while AV data is beingreproduced.

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of AV data recorded on a typical storagemedium. As shown in FIG. 1, a storage medium (such as the medium 250shown, for example, in FIG. 2) is typically formed with multiple layersin order to manage a structure of AV data recorded thereon. The datastructure 100 includes one or more clips 110 that are recording units ofa multimedia image (AV data); one or more playlists 120 that arereproducing units of multimedia image (AV data); move objects 130including navigation commands that are used to reproduce a multimediaimage (AV data); and an index table 140 that is used to specify a movieobject to be first reproduced and titles of movie objects 130.

The clips 110 are implemented as one object which includes a clip AVstream 112 for an AV data stream for a high picture quality movie andclip information 114 for attributes corresponding to the AV data stream.For example, the AV data stream may be compressed according to astandard, such as the motion picture experts group (MPEG). However, suchclips 110 need not require the AV data stream 112 to be compressed inall aspects of the present invention. In addition, the clip information114 may include audio/video properties of the AV data stream 112, anentry point map in which information regarding a location of a randomlyaccessible entry point is recorded in units of a predetermined sectionand the like.

Each playlist 120 includes a playlist mark composed of marks whichindicate the positions of clips 110 corresponding to the playlist 120.Each playlist 120 also includes a set of reproduction intervals of theseclips 110, and each reproduction interval is referred to as a play item122. Hence, AV data can be reproduced in units of playlists 120 and inan order of playitems 122 listed in a playlist 120.

The movie object 130 is formed with navigation command programs, andthese navigation commands start reproduction of a playlist 120, switchbetween movie objects 130, or manage reproduction of a playlist 120according to preference of a user.

The index table 140 is a table at the top layer of the storage medium todefine a plurality of titles and menus, and includes start locationinformation of all titles and menus such that a title or menu selectedby a user operation, such as title search or menu call, can bereproduced. The index table 140 also includes start location informationof a title or menu that is automatically reproduced first when a storagemedium is placed on a reproducing apparatus.

However, in such a storage medium, there is no method for jumping to anarbitrary scene according to a search condition (e.g., scene, character,location, sound, or item) desired by a user and reproducing the scene.In other words, a typical storage medium does not provide a function formoving to a portion of the AV data according to a search condition(e.g., scene, character, location, sound, or item) set by the user andreproducing the portion. Therefore, the storage medium cannot offerdiverse search functions.

Since AV data is compression-encoded and recorded on a conventionalstorage medium according to an MPEG 2 standard and multiplexed, it isdifficult to manufacture a storage medium that contains metadata neededto search for a moving picture. In addition, once a storage medium ismanufactured, it is almost impossible to edit or reuse AV data ormetadata stored on the storage medium.

Further, a currently defined playlist mark cannot distinguish multipleangles or multiple paths. Therefore, even when AV data supports multipleangles or multiple paths, it is difficult to provide diverse enhancedsearch functions on the AV data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Various aspects and example embodiments of the present invention providean apparatus and method for reproducing a storage medium that storesmetadata for providing an enhanced search function using various searchkeywords of audio-visual (AV) data. In addition, the present inventionalso provides an apparatus and method for reproducing a storage mediumthat stores metadata for actively providing an enhanced search functionin connection with AV data in various formats.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forthin part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obviousfrom the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provideda reproducing apparatus which reproduces audio-visual (AV) data storedin an information storage medium. The reproducing apparatus comprises asearch unit arranged to search for scenes matching a search keyword byconducting an enhanced search function on the AV data with reference tometadata which contains information regarding at least one searchkeyword for each of the scenes of the AV data; and a reproducing unitarranged to reproduce the AV data corresponding to at least one scenefound by the search unit.

The apparatus may further include a user interface receiving the searchkeyword input by a user and displaying search results for the searchkeyword.

The enhanced search function may be enabled when the AV data isreproduced along a main playback path defined by an author and may bedisabled when the AV data is reproduced along a side playback pathdefined by a user.

When there are found scenes, the reproducing unit may display the foundscenes on the user interface, receive information regarding theselection of one of the found scenes by the user, and reproduce the AVdata corresponding to the selected scene.

The reproducing unit may reproduce the AV data corresponding to thescene immediately before or after the selected scene based on the user'sinput.

When there are found scenes, the reproducing unit may sequentiallyreproduce AV data corresponding to the found scenes.

When the AV data supports multiple angles, the reproducing apparatus mayreproduce AV data corresponding to a predetermined angle or an angleinput by the user using information regarding angles included in themetadata.

The metadata may be defined for each of the scenes. The reproducing unitmay find a start position of the at least one found scene using an entrypoint indicating the start position of the at least one found scene. Thesearch results may be displayed together with respective thumbnails.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method of reproducing AV data stored in an informationstorage medium. Such a method comprises searching for scenes matching asearch keyword by conducting an enhanced search function on the AV datawith reference to metadata which contains information regarding at leastone search keyword for each of the scenes of the AV data; andreproducing the AV data corresponding to a scene found.

In addition to the example embodiments and aspects as described above,further aspects and embodiments of the present invention will beapparent by reference to the drawings and by study of the followingdescriptions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description of example embodiments and theclaims when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, allforming a part of the disclosure of this invention. While the followingwritten and illustrated disclosure focuses on disclosing exampleembodiments of the invention, it should be clearly understood that thesame is by way of illustration and example only and that the inventionis not limited thereto. The spirit and scope of the present inventionare limited only by the terms of the appended claims. The followingrepresents brief descriptions of the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of AV data recorded on a typical storagemedium;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example reproducing apparatus whichreproduces a storage medium storing meta data for providing an enhancedsearch function according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reproducing a recordingmedium storing metadata for providing the enhanced search functionaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates example screens displayed an example of searching fora desired scene using metadata for a title scene search;

FIG. 5 illustrates the relationship between metadata for a title scenesearch and audio-visual (AV) data according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a directory of metadata according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a naming rule of an example metadata file accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates the structure of metadata according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a detailed structure of metadata shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 illustrates the application scope of a title which provides theenhanced search function;

FIG. 11 illustrates an application of metadata according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates an application of metadata according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a highlight playback using metadataaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 illustrates a multi-angle title that provides the enhancedsearch function using metadata according to an embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 15 illustrates a reproducing process of an example reproducingapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elementsthroughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain thepresent invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example reproducing apparatus whichreproduces a storage medium storing metadata for providing an enhancedsearch function according to an embodiment of the present invention.Referring to FIG. 2, the reproducing apparatus 200 includes a readingunit 210, a reproducing unit 220, a search unit 230, and a userinterface 240.

The reading unit 210 reads audio-visual (AV) data and metadata forproviding the enhanced search function from a storage medium 250 such asa Blu-ray disc (BD). The reproducing unit 220 decodes and reproduces theAV data. In particular, when a user inputs a search keyword, thereproducing unit 220 receives from the search unit 230 informationregarding a scene matching the search keyword and reproduces the scene.When there are multiple scenes matching the search keyword, thereproducing unit 220 displays all scenes matching the search keyword onthe user interface 240 and reproduces one or more scenes selected by theuser or sequentially reproduces all of the scenes. The reproducing unit220 may also be called a playback control engine.

The search unit 230 receives a search keyword from the user interface240 and searches for scenes matching the search keyword. Then, thesearch unit 230 transmits the search results to the user interface 240to display the search results in the form of a list or to thereproducing unit 220 to reproduce the same. As illustrated in FIG. 2,search results may be presented as a list of scenes matching a searchkeyword.

The user interface 240 receives a search keyword input by a user ordisplays search results. Also, when a user selects a scene from searchresults, i.e., a list of scenes found, displayed on the user interface240, the user interface 240 receives information regarding theselection.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of reproducing a recordingmedium storing the metadata for providing the enhanced search functionaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to thereproducing method 300 shown in FIG. 3, a user inputs a search keywordusing the user interface 240, as shown in FIG. 2, at block 310. Thesearch keyword may be a scene type, a character, an actor, an item, alocation, a sound, or any word defined by an author. For example, whenthe movie “The Matrix” is reproduced, all scenes in which the character“Neo” appears can be searched for. Also, all scenes in which an item“mobile phone” appears can be searched for.

Next, all scenes matching the input search keyword are searched for withreference to a metadata file at block 320. The metadata file defines aplurality of scenes, and includes information regarding search keywordsassociated with each scene and an entry point of each scene. Thestructure of the metadata file will be described in detail later.Portions of AV data which correspond to found scenes are searched forusing entry points of the found scenes and are reproduced at block 330.In this way, an enhanced search can be conducted on AV data usingvarious search keywords. Hereinafter, the enhanced search function willalso be referred to as a “title scene search function.”

FIG. 4 illustrates example screens 400 displayed in an example ofsearching for a desired scene using the metadata for the title scenesearch. The metadata for the title scene search includes searchinformation for each scene in AV data recorded on a storage medium 250,such as a Blu-ray disc (BD) as shown in FIG. 2. Referring to FIG. 4,while a movie title such as “The Matrix” or “The Lord of the Rings” isbeing reproduced at stage #1, a user selects the title scene searchfunction using the user interface 240, as shown in FIG. 2, such as aremote controller, to search for scenes that are associated with adesired search keyword.

The user selects one of a plurality of search keyword categoriesdisplayed on the user interface 240 at stage #2, and selects a searchkeyword from the selected search keyword category at stage #3. Forexample, when the user selects “item” as a search keyword category andselects “tower” as a search keyword corresponding to “item,” the movietitle is searched for scenes in which “tower” appears, and searchresults are displayed together with respective thumbnails at stage #4.When the user selects one of the search results, i.e., found scenes, theselected scene is reproduced at stage #5. Using a command such as “skipto next search result” or “skip to previous search result” on the userinterface 240, a previous or next scene can be searched for andreproduced at stage #6.

A “highlight playback” function for sequentially reproducing all scenesfound can also be provided. In the highlight playback, all searchresults are sequentially reproduced. As a result, there is no need towait until a user selects one of the search results. When a user selectsa search keyword associated with contents, search results for theselected search keyword are obtained. The search results form thehighlights of the contents associated with the selected search keyword.

The structure of the metadata for the title scene search will now bedescribed in detail herein below.

FIG. 5 illustrates the relationship between metadata 500 for the titlescene search and AV data on a storage medium according to an embodimentof the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, the storage mediumaccording to an embodiment of the present invention (such as medium 250,shown in FIG. 2) stores the metadata 500 in addition to the AV datashown in FIG. 1. The metadata 500 may be stored in files separately frommovie playlists, which are reproducing units. A metadata file 510 iscreated for each playlist 520, and includes a plurality of scenes 512,which are author-defined sections of each playlist 520. Each scene 512includes an entry point indicating a start position thereof. In exampleembodiments of the present invention, each scene 512 may further includethe duration thereof.

Using an entry point (EP) map included in clip information 114, eachentry point is converted into an address of a scene in a clip AV stream112 included in each clip 110. Therefore, the start position of eachscene included in a clip AV stream 112, which is real AV data, can befound using an entry point. Each scene 512 also includes informationregarding search keywords associated therewith (hereinafter referred toas search keyword information). For example, the search keywordinformation may include the following:

Scene 1 is a battle scene,

Characters are A, B and C,

Actors are a, b and c, and

Location is x.

Accordingly, a user can search for scenes matching a desired searchkeyword based on the search keyword information of each scene 512. Inaddition, the start positions of found scenes in a clip AV stream 112can be determined using the entry points of the found scenes, and thenthe found scenes can be reproduced.

FIG. 6 illustrates a directory of metadata 500 according to anembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, metadata 500related to the AV data shown in FIG. 5, is stored in files in respectivedirectories. Specifically, an index table is stored in an index.bdmvfile, a movie object is stored in a MovieObject.bdmv file, and playlistsare stored in xxxxx.mpis files in a PLAYLIST directory. In addition,clip information is stored in xxxxx.clpi files in a CLIPINF directory,clip AV streams are stored in xxxxx.m2ts files in a STREAM directory,and other data is stored in files in an AUXDATA directory.

The metadata 500 for the title scene search is stored in files in a METAdirectory separately from the AV data. A metadata file for a disclibrary is dlmt_xxx.xml, and a metadata file for the title scene searchis esmt_xxx_yyyyy.xml. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the meta data 100 is recorded in an XML format and in amarkup language for easy editing and reuse. Hence, after the storagemedium is manufactured, data recorded thereon can be edited and reused.

FIG. 7 illustrates a naming rule of an example metadata file 510according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.7, the name of the metadata file 510 starts with a prefixesmt_indicating metadata 500. The next three characters indicate alanguage code according to an ISO 639-2 standard, and the next fivecharacters indicate a corresponding playlist number. As described above,a metadata file 510 is created for each playlist 520, as shown in FIG.5. In addition, a menu displayed during the title scene search cansupport multiple languages using the language code according to an ISO639-2 standard.

FIG. 8 illustrates the structure of an example metadata file 510according to an embodiment of the present invention. As described inconnection with FIG. 5, each metadata file 510 includes a plurality ofscenes 512. Referring to FIG. 8, each scene 512 corresponds to searchkeywords such as a scene type, a character, actor, etc. A value of eachsearch keyword may be expressed using a sub-element or an attribute ofthe search keyword according to an XML rule.

FIG. 9 illustrates a detailed structure of an example metadata file 510shown in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 9, each scene 512 for the title scenesearch includes a scene type element, a character element, an actorelement, or an “authordef” element which is an author-defined searchkeyword. In addition, each scene 512 includes “entry_point” indicatingthe start position of each scene and “duration” indicating a period oftime during which each scene is reproduced. When multiple angles aresupported, each scene 512 also includes “angle_num” indicating aparticular angle. Whether to include “duration” and “angle_num” in eachscene 512 is optional.

An example of conducting the title scene search using metadata 500 willnow be described as follows.

Specifically, FIG. 10 illustrates the application scope of a title whichprovides the enhanced search function according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. As previously shown in FIG. 5, a storage medium 250,such as a Blu-ray disc (BD), may store a movie title for reproducing amoving picture such as a movie and an interactive title includingprograms for providing interactive functions to users. The metadata 500for the title scene search provides the enhanced search function while amoving picture is being reproduced. Thus, the metadata 500 is used onlyfor movie titles. The type of title can be identified by a“Title_playback_type” field. If the “Title_playback_type” field of atitle is 0b, the title is a movie title. If the “Title_playback_type”field of a title is 1b, the title is an interactive title. Therefore,the title scene search according to an embodiment of the presentinvention can be conducted only when the “Title_playback_type” field is0b.

Referring to FIG. 10, when a storage medium 250, such as a Blu-ray disc(BD), is loaded into an example reproducing apparatus 200, as shown inFIG. 2, title #1 is accessed using an index table. When a navigationcommand “Play playlist #1” included in movie object #1 of title #1 isexecuted, playlist #1 is reproduced. As shown in FIG. 10, playlist #1 iscomposed of at least one play item. An author may arbitrarily define achapter or a scene, regardless of a play item.

A playlist which is automatically reproduced according to the indextable when a storage medium 250 is loaded into an example reproducingapparatus 200, shown in FIG. 2, is called a main playback path playlist,and a playlist which is reproduced by another movie object that a usercalls using a button object while the main playback path playlist isbeing reproduced is called a side playback path playlist. The sideplayback path playlist is not within the scope of a chapter or a scenedefined by an author. Therefore, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, the title scene search function is enabled for themain playback path playlist and disabled for the side playback pathplaylist.

In summary, the application scope of the title that provides theenhanced search function has the following constraints.

-   -   1) The title scene search is applied to movie titles.    -   2) Metadata for the title scene search is defined in units of        playlists. Since a movie title may include one or more        playlists, one or more metadata may be defined for a playlist.    -   3) The title scene search is applied to the main playback path        playlist, but not to the side playback path playlist.

FIG. 11 illustrates an application of metadata 500 according to anembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 11, scenes usedin the metadata 500 are defined. The scenes are basic units used in themetadata 500 for the title scene search and basic units of contentsincluded in a playlist. An author may designate entry points in aplaylist on a global time axis. Content between two neighboring entrypoints is a scene.

When a user searches for contents using a search keyword, search resultsare represented as a group of entry points included in scenes havingmetadata whose search keyword information matches the search keyword.Such entry points are sequentially arranged temporally and transmittedto the playback control engine, i.e., as the reproducing unit 200 asshown in FIG. 2. The playback control engine can search for a pluralityof scenes associated with identical search keywords and reproduce thescenes.

Referring to FIG. 11, entry points for each search keyword are expressedas circles. For example, when a user selects scenetype #1 as a searchkeyword, the search results include scene #1, scene #3, and scene #n.Then, the user may select some of scene #1, scene #3, and scene #n forreproduction. In addition, the user may navigate and reproduce previousor next search results using a user operation (UO) such as “Skip to nextscene( )” or “Skip to previous scene( )” through the user interface 240,shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 12 illustrates an application of metadata 500 according to anotherembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 12, scenes aredefined using duration in addition to entry points described above. Aninterval between an entry point and a point at the end of the durationis defined as a scene. When a user selects a scene, search results canbe reproduced according to three scenarios.

1) Scenario 1: Simple Playback

Regardless of duration, a playlist is reproduced from an entry point ofa scene selected by a user from search results to the end of theplaylist unless there is a user input. For example, when a user selectsscenetype #1, playlist #1 is reproduced from an entry point of scene #1to the end of playlist #1.

2) Scenario 2: Highlight Playback

A playlist is reproduced from an entry point of a scene selected by auser from search results until the end of the duration of the selectedscene. Then, the reproducing unit 20 jumps to a next scene andreproduces the next scene. For example, when a user selects scenetype#2, only scene #1 and scene #3, which are search results, arereproduced. In other words, only the highlights of playlist #1 which areassociated with the search keyword scenetype #2 are reproduced. Anotherexample of the highlight playback is illustrated in FIG. 13. Referringto FIG. 13, search results are sequentially reproduced. Therefore, thereis no need to stop and wait for a user input after a found scene isreproduced. In other words, after one of a plurality of search resultsfor actor “a” is reproduced, a next search result is subsequentlyreproduced. In this way, only the highlights of actor “a” arereproduced. For the highlight playback, each search result is expressedusing a duration and an entry point. The search results can be linkedand sequentially reproduced using the entry points and the durationinformation.

3) Scenario 3: Scene-Based Playback

Search results are reproduced by scene. In other words, a scene selectedby a user from search results is reproduced from an entry point of thescene for the duration of the scene. After the duration, reproduction isstopped until a user input is received. Scenario 3 is similar toscenario 2 except that the reproduction is stopped at the end of thescene.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example multi-angle title that provides theenhanced search function using metadata 500 according to an embodimentof the present invention. Referring to FIG. 14, an example of amulti-path title composed of multiple angles is illustrated. Themulti-path title is composed of five (5) play items. Of the five playitems, a second (2nd) play item is composed of three (3) angles, and afourth (4th) play item is composed of four (4) angles. In a playlistthat supports multiple angles, scene #1 and scene #2 matching the searchkeyword scenetype #1 and scene #3 and scene #4 matching the searchkeyword scenetype #2 are found. Each scene is defined by an entry pointand duration.

Found scenes can be overlapped each other because overlapping entrypoints can be distinguished by “angle_num” shown in FIG. 5. However,when entry points do not overlap each other, scenes found as a result ofthe enhanced search cannot overlap each other. When a user desires toreproduce search results according to scenario 2, the reproducingapparatus sequentially reproduces scenes along a dotted arrow in FIG.14.

Referring to FIG. 14, scenes which cover a portion of a play item or aplurality of play items are illustrated. In each scene, the metadata 500of AV data thereof is defined.

In the case of play items which support multiple angles (for example,the second and fourth play items), the metadata 500 is applied to AVdata corresponding to one of the supported multiple angles. For example,in the case of scene #1, parts of first and second play items aredefined as a reproduction section, and a value of angle_num is three.The value of angle_num is applied only to play items that supportmultiple angles. Therefore, play items that do not support multipleangles are reproduced at a default angle. A player status register(PSR), 3 which is a state register of the reproducing apparatus 200, asshown, for example, in FIG. 2, is designated as a default angle.Accordingly, when scene #1 is reproduced, play item #1 which does notsupport multiple angles is reproduced at the default angle, and playitem #2 which supports multiple angles is reproduced at angle 3according to the value designated as the attribute of angle_num. In thiscase, search keywords defined for scene #1 for the title scene searchare applied to angle 3 for play item 2 that supports multiple angles. Asdescribed above, when metadata 500 including angle_num is used, a titlewhich supports multiple angles can also provide various enhanced searchfunctions according to a designated search keyword.

FIG. 15 illustrates a reproducing process of an example reproducingapparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referringto FIG. 15, the reproducing apparatus 200, shown in FIG. 2, provides thetitle scene search function while reproducing a movie title. When astorage medium 250, such as a Blu-ray disc (BD), is loaded into thereproducing apparatus 200 and the reproduction of a movie title starts(operation 1510), the title scene search function is activated to be ina valid state (operation 1520). As described with reference to FIG. 14,when a movie title that supports multiple angles is reproduced, thetitle scene search can be conducted by changing an angle (operation1530). In addition, if a multi-path playlist is supported (operation1522), when a playlist is changed to a main playback path playlist, thetitle scene search function is activated to be in the valid state(operation 1534). However, when the playlist is changed to a sideplayback path playlist, the title scene search function becomes invalid(operation 1532). Further, when a title is changed to an interactivetitle, not a movie title, the title scene search function becomesinvalid (operation 1538).

As described above, the present invention provides a storage mediumstoring metadata for providing an enhanced search function using varioussearch keywords for AV data, an apparatus and method for reproducing thestorage medium. The present invention can also provide the enhancedsearch function in connection with AV data in various formats.

In other words, the metadata for providing the enhanced search functionis defined by scene by an author, and each scene includes informationregarding at least one search keyword. In addition, each scene includesinformation regarding an entry point and/or duration, angles, and so on.Hence, the enhanced search function can be conducted using varioussearch keywords.

Further, search results can be reproduced according to diversescenarios, and the enhanced search function can be provided for movietitles that support multiple angles or multiple paths. Moreover,metadata can be created in multiple languages, thereby enabling theprovision of the enhanced search function that supports multiplelanguages.

Example embodiments of the enhanced search method according to thepresent invention can also be written as a computer program and can beimplemented in a general digital computer that executes the computerprogram recorded on a computer-readable medium. Codes and code segmentsconstructing the computer program can be easily induced by computerprogrammers in the art. The computer-readable medium can be any datastorage device that can store data which can be thereafter read by acomputer system. Examples of the computer-readable recording mediuminclude read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs,magnetic tapes, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and carrierwaves (such as data transmission through the Internet). Thecomputer-readable medium can also be distributed over network coupledcomputer systems so that the computer readable code is stored andexecuted in a distributed fashion.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form anddetails may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention. For example, any computer readable media ordata storage devices may be utilized, as long as metadata is included inthe playlist in the manner shown in FIG. 5 through FIG. 15. In addition,metadata can also be configured differently as shown in FIG. 5.Moreover, a reproducing apparatus as shown in FIG. 2 can be implementedas part of a recording apparatus, or alternatively a single apparatusfor performing recording and/or reproducing functions with respect to astorage medium. Similarly, the CPU can be implemented as a chipsethaving firmware, or alternatively, a general or special purposedcomputer programmed to perform the methods as described, for example,with reference to FIG. 3, and FIGS. 10-15. Accordingly, it is intended,therefore, that the present invention not be limited to the variousexample embodiments disclosed, but that the present invention includesall embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A reproducing apparatus configured to reproduceaudio-visual (AV) data stored on an optical information storage medium,the reproducing apparatus comprising: a search unit configured to searchfor scenes of at least one moving picture matching a search keyword byconducting an enhanced search function on the AV data with reference tometadata that contains information regarding at least one search keywordfor each of the scenes of the AV data, the AV data and the metadatabeing stored on the optical information storage medium, the metadatabeing stored in at least one file separately from the AV data; and areproducing unit configured to reproduce the AV data, from the opticalinformation storage medium, corresponding to at least one scene found bythe search unit, wherein the enhanced search function is enabled for amovie title indicated by an index table, and is disabled for aninteractive title indicated by the index table.
 2. A non-transitoryinformation storage medium formed with multiple layers to manage a datastructure of audio-visual (AV) data recorded thereon, the informationstorage medium comprising: one or more clips that are recording units ofAV data, each clip being implemented as one object including a clip AVstream for the AV data and clip information for attributes correspondingto the AV data; one or more playlists that are reproducing units of AVdata, each playlist including a set of playitems corresponding toreproduction intervals of the clips; and one or more metadata filescreated for each playlist for providing an enhanced search function onthe AV data, the one or more metadata files comprising metadata definedscene by scene and comprising information regarding at least one searchkeyword to be applied to a corresponding scene, in response to a searchkeyword being input by a user, and the AV data corresponding to one ormore scenes matching the search keyword being reproduced, wherein theenhanced search function is enabled for a movie title indicated by anindex table, and is disabled for an interactive title indicated by theindex table.